Google Announces Major Upgrade for Google AdWords

Some big news from Google overnight, with the announcement of the most significant upgrade to AdWords in recent years.Announcing Google Adwords Enhanced Campaigns

In a nutshell, the new Enhanced Campaigns platform aims to help advertisers manage their search campaigns more effectively across multiple devices, including desktops, laptops, smartphones, tablets, fablets and televisions, without needing separate accounts, report types, ad extensions etc.

Google highlights three main features of the new platform:

More powerful campaign management tools

Smarter ads with contextual targeting and device optimisation

Advanced reporting functionality across multiple conversion types.

Google’s Inside AdWords blog cites a recent study from IPSOS suggesting that up to 90% of multi-device consumers move between devices to complete an online task, reflecting the increasingly complex and connected world we live in. For advertisers, this upgrade will simplify the way they go about targeting connected consumers with ads relevant to where the consumer is, the time of day, and the type of device they’re using. For Google, it will increase the adoption of mobile advertising, help them provide more relevant ads for consumers, and strengthen their position in the mobile market.

Google’s infographic depicts the typical weekend for an Aussie and their mobile device:

Click graphic to view full size

FirstClick is working closely with Google on the transition, and our account managers are booked in for training sessions early next week. At this stage it looks like the migration to Enhanced Campaigns will be optional over the next several weeks, with the intention that all advertisers will be transitioned by mid-2013. For our clients, your account managers will be in touch to discuss this change soon. In the meantime, here are some resources and industry articles covering the announcement: